Out of the Surgical Wrapping and Into a Cast

We are now the proud owner of our family's first cast.  Well, Joann is the proud owner, I just get to take lots of pictures (I have pictures of the incisions under the cast, but decided to not post them.  If you want to see the cut, let me know).  Neither one of us has ever had a cast before and it was very interesting watching her arm being casted.  Very different from what we thought it would be - they use a fiber glass tape that has a water activated crosslinking polymer embedded in it to form the cast.  I was thinking they would be whipping up some plaster of Paris and ripping up some cloth strips to dip in it.  Nice thing with the new technology, it sets up really fast compared to waiting for a plaster cast to set.  The technology aside, Jo is now the proud owner of baby blue cast.  She is making progress on her healing and the cast feels more protective of her arm so she is a little bit more aggressive with using it, but it is still another four weeks before the cast is removed.

To keep Jo occupied we fired the kiln last week - well we were ready to fire the kiln independent of her surgery, but it seemed like a good thing to take her mind off of her hand.  This was just a bisque firing to prepare our works for glazing, so not quite as exciting since there is still another step before we are ready to display them.  But it is always fun to see something get up to 1,900 degrees F - glowing red hot.  Most of the works this time where clay luminaries - think rectangular boxes, into which you put candles, with Christmas themed cut-outs in the side (I hope to post a picture of them lit up sometime in the next few weeks).  The rest of the kiln was filled with various pots and other works.

The first snow shoveling also happened this week as we got about 3-4 inches of snow over the weekend.  Fortunately, the weather is turning warm this week so I didn't have to do a really good job.  I toyed with the idea of just leaving it and waiting for nature to get rid of it, but I just couldn't get my head around leaving snow un-shoveled, try as I might.  Our last fun event for the week was the Milwaukee Art Museum reopened their new addition this weekend.  They added a new section and had the permanent collection has been closed since the start of the construction.  They did a nice job on the addition and rejuvenated all their displays - they are now displaying an additional 1,000 works of art which is good.  After the museum, we had a lovely lunch at our favorite barbecue place - the Smoke Shack - nothing like pulled pork sandwiches on a cold winter day.

One Less Bone to Worry About

 

 Last week Jo finally decided it was time to decrease the pain she has been experiencing in her hands.  Over the last few years she has had increasing problems with the joint at the base of her thumb leading her to have to modify everything from how she holds a pen to opening jars.  So last Monday she went under the knife again - yes it is becoming a yearly event - to have Resection Arthroplasty of the Thumb.  That's the technical term (I think), what it consists of is removing a bone near the base of the thumb (the CMC joint) and filling the space with a tendon from her wrist (turns out many people, but not all, have a spare tendon in their wrist - if you are curious I now know how to tell).  She came through the surgery fine and spent the week with her wrist elevated and in a really large splint/bandage.  The pain was pretty intense for the first two days but after that it leveled off to something she could manage without any painkillers.  The hardest thing was she needs to keep the hand elevated all day and night.  She is getting tired of sleeping only on her right side.  But, she gets a more permanent cast later this week, which I'm hoping to be able to sign with something witty, which we're hoping provides her a few more options for using her left arm/hand.

With Jo laid up on the couch most of the week, we didn't do too much else.  But we did manage to take in a UW-Milwaukee women's volleyball game on Saturday in which they played UW-Green Bay (in case you are curious, there are 26 UW campuses).  It was fun watching some good volleyball and most importantly it was good to get Jo out for a few hours.  Although, clapping is really hard when you only have one hand.  She has definitely hit the point where she really wants to move her thumb even just a little bit.  But as you can see, they immobilized it really well.  Next up sometime next year is the right hand.  Which will be really interesting as my right handed wife has to do everything with the wrong hand.  Can't wait to go through this all again - but it does continue her streak of yearly surgeries.  We are welcoming ideas for the 2017 operation.

By the way, the first picture is not Jo trying to reenact scenes from the Virgin Mary's life, the post-op area was really cold and the nurse was trying to keep her warm.  

Our First Admirals Game of the Season

Jo spent part of the week enjoying the warmth in Phoenix on business while I puttered around the house enjoying our unseasonably warm weather in Milwaukee.  El Nino is certainly giving us a wonderful late fall/early winter as we had several days in the 60's which for us is positively balmy - especially when compared to the last few years.  And according to the weather reports the nice weather may continue into next week.


We are slowly working our way through the Milwaukee sports offerings - this last Friday it was the Admirals turn.  The Admirals, for those that have forgotten, are the farm team for the Nashville Predators.  And for those that really don't follow sports - we are talking about a hockey team.  We were joined at the Northwestern suite by several of Jo's HR team so not only did we get to watch a fun game, I continue to slowly learn more about the people who work with Jo.  It was an exciting game since apparently these two teams don't like each other since they spent a good part of the game fighting - something I still believe should be eliminated from hockey.  For those keeping track - the Admirals won so we are a complete jinx for the Admirals like we are for the Bucks.

Saturday after our usual morning workouts, we were joined by Kathy, Drew, and several of Drew's groomsmen to watch the Badger football game.  They were all in town to get the tuxedo shopping out of the way for Drew's upcoming nuptials.  Afterwards we headed to Benji's diner where I continued my club sandwich's  across America campaign.  And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the bacon on the sandwich, despite the WHO warnings.  If I go, at least I'll go happy.

Sunday we walked up to City Market for our favorite cinnamon rolls before Kathy headed back to Madison afterwords we worked on a few chores around the house.  Also, sorry about the blimp shot - but I just love the Admiral's blimp floating around inside the Bradley arena.

Our First Bucks Game for the Season

We were home for the entire weekend for the first time in a long while.  Our weekend started off with going to see the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center on Friday for our first game this season.  Unfortunately, we brought no more luck to them this year as we did last year as they lost the game after leading for almost 80% of the game.  The game aside, we enjoyed the food in the suite (when else am I going to get chicken nuggets to eat) and talking with several of Jo's HR team.

Saturday, we worked out and then watched our Badger's win while hopefully waiting for some trick and treaters to brave the cloudy and wet weather.  Not much luck as we only had about 8-10 brave souls which means we have bags and bags of candy left over since we normally have a much greater turnout.  Good eating for us as long as we don't mind gaining 50-75 lbs. - each, although I think Jo is searching for an organization in Milwaukee who needs extra candy.  We spent the rest of the rainy Saturday catching up on deciding our 2016 health care plans and, more excitedly, planning our next big vacation since we always like to have one (or two) planned.

Sunday, Jo headed off to Phoenix for a business meeting and I lazed around the house trying to make some progress in a computer game I've been working through.  The only real problem is I can only play for about 20 minutes before the game overheats the Intel chip inside my computer and it all shuts down.  I've gotten it down to a system to keep the computer crashes to a minimum, but I'm thinking it might be time for a new computer to join the ranks.

The weather this week in Milwaukee here has been phenomenal with temperatures in the 60's and 70's so far (our usual would be the high 40's).  I've taken advantage to get outside and get the various flower and vegetable beds ready for their long winter sleep along with getting in a couple of nice walks.